CBC Strike One

I had an interesting time sitting for the CBC skills exam in November. The test site is about half an hour away, and I got there about an hour before the exam was scheduled to start. The RTC site was going up and down for some people, and we weren't sure how we were going to test. I got some practice in, but I was annoyed that I could hear other people's practice recordings through their headphones. About 10 minutes before we were scheduled to test, the chief examiner asked everyone to leave the room so she could make sure the CD was working.

I think a couple of people stayed, because after a few minutes, one of them let us know we could come back in. I didn't like having to get up right before the test like that. I need some time to get settled into a spot before I'm ready to write. The CRR was played first. I can't remember if they had a pause between the minute of practice and the actual exam or not. The chief examiner gave the CBC testers a choice of having one or not. No one had a preference, and we got the opposite of what the CRR testers had. I remember thinking I would've preferred what they got.

Once the actual test started, my nerves got the best of me, and I felt like I was writing complete slop. I couldn't feel where the keys were, and I couldn't focus on the recording. I think I even dropped a setence or two because I was so zoned out. It was really disappointing, especially since the recording seemed really easy. It felt like something I should've been able to write, which made failing that much harder to take.

I got an 85% on it, which I guess isn't abysmal. I really lucked out, though; since there were problems with giving the test via RTC, it's being offered again for my site (and others) at half price on January 26th. I'll be taking it again, of course, and since I passed both the CBC and CCP written exams in October, I won't ever have to do those again.

My practice strategy, such as it was, was to carry on with my normal 2-hour practice routine every day, and to include the RTC practice take once a day for the week preceeding the exam. The take was a struggle at first, but by the end of the week I had it down pat. This time, for the two weeks preceeding the exam, I'm going to switch out the news portion of my practice for an hour of speedbuilding takes at 180 wpm. Getting back in the groove of metered verbatim is a huge hurdle, but hopefully two weeks will be enough to clear it.